


Looming Gaia: The True Story of Karenza

by TheGreys (alienjpeg)



Series: Looming Gaia [21]
Category: Looming Gaia
Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 19:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20912861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alienjpeg/pseuds/TheGreys
Summary: Many myths and legends surround Karenza, the Divine of Love. But what is truth and what is myth? According to her most loyal minervae, these are the true events from her beginnings to present.





	Looming Gaia: The True Story of Karenza

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be an article for the Looming Gaia lore blog, but it was way too long, so I turned it into a short story.
> 
> You can check out all the series' lore pages here: https://loominggaia.tumblr.com/post/175087795478/looming-gaia-masterpost
> 
> WARNING: this story contains "spoilers" about Isaac's origin. The idea is that if you were already familiar with the lore, you'd have known his origin anyway. But if you'd prefer to discover it along with him, give this one a skip.

Many legends and myths surround Karenza, the Divine of Love. Only the most ancient minervae know the truth. It is they who stood by her side in the earliest days of divinity. It is not a truth that everyone wishes to know or can tolerate knowing.

Perhaps it doesn’t fit one’s narrative. Perhaps it is not the story they grew up with and came to love. Perhaps it shatters their idealized view of Karenza and in turn, their faith.

But this is the tale of Karenza’s life, both as a mortal and as a divine, as relayed by her most loyal minervae followers.

Karenza began her life as a simple peasant with only a mother to raise her. Her father had not been a noble soldier as most legends say, but was in fact a drunkard and a thief. Legends also say he was killed in battle when Karenza was a child. Truthfully, he was imprisoned for thievery and murdered by another prisoner. Karenza and her mother continued to make pottery for a living, earning just enough to survive in his absence.

They lived in an ancient city called Alqamah, which is now buried somewhere in the sands of the Serkel Desert. Alqamah cannot be found on any modern map, for its exact location has been long forgotten.

Alqamah was plagued by a cruel king and his army of heavy-handed soldiers—most of which were orphaned boys who lost their parents in his wars. One fateful night, a gang of these soldiers raided Karenza’s home as they had raided so many others.

They terrorized Karenza and her mother while robbing them of what little valuables they had. What the soldiers couldn’t carry away, they destroyed, including all of the unsold pottery. Karenza’s mother fought back, but was tragically killed in the struggle. The soldiers then left Karenza to grieve, injured and alone in her ruined home.

Soon after, Karenza dared to do what no one had ever done before: confront the evil king. Her mother had instilled the values of kindness and mercy in her, but her father had taught her to be bold in the face of evil.

She marched up to the king’s palace and demanded an audience. When the guards refused her, she sneaked in anyway and confronted the king right at his golden throne.

Exactly what words were exchanged have been lost by time. But it is known that Karenza spit in the king’s eyes, and for this she was jailed in the palace dungeon. She was tortured mercilessly by the king’s soldiers for years.

One of the soldiers, however, took no joy in harming her. He was an orphaned young man named Darshaan who had just recently graduated from military training.

Karenza and Darshaan spoke many times, telling eachother of their lives. Darshaan was enchanted by Karenza’s kindness, noting how she always shared her bread with the other prisoners and even the rats, despite how she starved.

In time, Darshaan fell in love with Karenza and could no longer participate in her suffering. Instead, he helped her escape and the two ran off into the desert. Though they tried to walk to the Sunglow River, it was simply too far and they collapsed in the heat.

Soon after, a faunae riding upon a great roc approached them. She claimed to be Natoma, Queen of Vermin. The rats had told her of Karenza’s kindness and selflessness in the dungeon. In return, she granted Karenza with the “Beast’s Blessing”, in which all beasts would know Karenza by her soul and meet her with kindness.

Natoma also offered the couple a ride upon her roc to the Sunglow River. There, Karenza and Darshaan built a life together in what would later become Yerim-Mor Capital. As an orphan raised by the king’s government, Darshaan lacked any skills beyond violence, so he became a freelance mercenary.

The couple lacked gold but they did not lack happiness. Their bellies were empty but their hearts were full of love. Inevitably, Karenza’s belly swelled with Darshaan’s child. Desperate for more gold, Darshaan took a very dangerous contract despite his lover’s wishes, and set off into a desert ruin to retrieve a mysterious artifact. He left Karenza with a golden locket in the shape of a bird, filled with his blood so that part of him would still be with her while he was away.

It seemed greed was his undoing, for Darshaan never returned. Karenza was due to give birth in a matter of days. But before she did, a hulking madman in a golden jackal mask raided her home, murdering her and her unborn child. His identity and motives were unknown.

Karenza awoke in her ruined house back in Alqamah, as if the last several years had been a dream. She told a shaman of her experience, who explained that she had been resurrected in the place of her birth because she had, in fact, been granted divinity by the Spirit of Gaia.

As a divine, Karenza’s body was frozen in time and her soul was undying. If she were to die, she would simply manifest again 9 months after her death. However, her child had not been so fortunate, and the celestials reaped the child’s soul as they reaped any mortal’s.

With her divine powers, Karenza was also able to commune with the celestials. She could hear their unearthly voices, which had been silent to her in her mortal life. So she used Natoma’s blessing to summon a mighty roc, riding upon its back to the stars. She boldly approached the celestials as she once boldly approached her king.

She begged the celestials to return her child’s soul to her womb and allow him to be born. But the celestials refused, claiming the child no longer had a vessel to return to. It had become one with the soil as all mortal things do, feeding the Body of Gaia.

Karenza did not give up so easily. Being a divine meant Karenza could not birth a child biologically, but she could forge soulless monsters with magic. So she returned to her ruined house and began making a baby out of clay.

Her loving, artistic hands crafted the baby boy in such fine detail that he might fool the celestials into believing he was a real person. Even beneath the skin, she individually crafted every bone, muscle, and organ to replicate a human being. Atop his head was her own hair, each eyelash one of her own as well. She used a drop of Darshaan's blood from her locket, as well as a drop of her own.

Once she had built his vessel, she blessed the baby with a kiss to grant him life. She named him “Isaac”. His clay became flesh, his heart beat in his chest, and he was warm to the touch. But when he opened his eyes, he revealed two white globes with no pupils, for there was no soul behind them.

Karenza had created a monster—an _abomination_, her people would say, for he was a soulless creature. Upon Isaac’s death, he would simply turn back to clay and crumble to dust, and the celestials would reap nothing from him.

Without a soul, he would never dance or sing to music. When he heard the beat of a drum or a beautiful melody, he would feel nothing at all. He could never know the joy of true love. He could never see the beauty in death or an afterlife in the cosmos.

Karenza wished for Isaac to experience all the things a mortal, person could. Upon her loyal roc, named Risha, she flew to foreign lands in search of anyone that could help. During these travels, she performed divine miracles and gathered a loyal following of worshipers who built a temple for her near the Sunglow River.

Every mage she met lacked the power she needed, but she learned of one necromancer who also happened to be a divine. Travelling to the faraway land of Umory-Ond, Karenza sought the help of Reaper, Divine of Death.

Reaper was bound to serve his mistress, Queen Morgause, at this time. He refused to waste time and effort on Karenza’s plight. Karenza then offered to help him escape his servitude to Morgause, and only then did he agree.

Risha carried them back to Karenza’s humble temple in Serkel, where the necromancer was finally free of his Unseelie bonds. In gratitude, he agreed to remove Karenza’s soul and place it in Isaac’s vessel.

Reaper warned that the repercussions of doing this were not known, as it had never been done before. Never in Looming Gaia’s history had a divine soul been tampered with, and never had a soul been planted into a monster.

Her body may grow old and die, he said, while Isaac gained immortality. She may lose her divine powers. Or perhaps she and Isaac would both combust into stars. Karenza was willing to take her chances to breathe humanity into Isaac, whom she loved just as much as the child she once carried in her womb.

Reaper performed the soul transfer, and when Isaac opened his eyes afterwards, they were rich in color, full of life and so very human. Karenza did not suddenly crumble to dust or meet any fate that Reaper warned of, but she feared that if either she or Isaac’s vessels died, either one could be gone forever. There was no way of knowing until it happened.

To protect the boy, her followers began fortifying her temple and learning to fight. Meanwhile, Karenza preached messages of love and mercy to all those who would listen, longing to nurture a better world than the harsh one she’d known as a mortal.

Other divines came to know and respect her, but no one respected her more than the Divine of Love, Azizala.

Touched by the sacrifice Karenza made to her son out of love, Azizala began mentoring her in the ways of love and mercy. She, Karenza, and their many collective followers spread love and charity all over the world. Their organization became known as the Order of Love and Light.

Years passed and Karenza’s body did not seem to age at all. Isaac, despite housing her divine soul, aged like any mortal boy just as she’d intended him to. He was 4 years old when the temple suffered a terrible attack—once again, by the man in the golden jackal mask.

He appeared with an army of shambling bonewalkers and a golden scythe, its magical blade cutting through stone like grass. Karenza and Azizala’s followers narrowly fought his forces off.

Azizala, unafraid of death, fought the masked man directly to protect Karenza and Isaac. But when she went blade-to-blade with him, his scythe cut through both her sword and her body.

She did not go down without mortally wounding him however, and they both died on the floor of the temple. Karenza waited for the celestials to resurrect Azizala, but when 9 months passed, she still had not returned. When Karenza questioned the celestials, they seemed just as confused as she, claiming Azizala’s soul was nowhere to be found.

The masked man’s corpse immediately crumbled to dust upon his death, but his scythe remained. The Order of Love and Light kept it in their possession to study it, but could only find hearsay and inconsistent conspiracies surrounding it.

It was an artifact known by many names, such as “God-Reaper” and “Death’s Crescent”. The Order decided to call it the “Divine Executioner” after what it had done to Azizala. It was the only known force on Looming Gaia that could permanently kill a divine.

Over time, news of the masked man spread like wildfire, for he was supposedly alive and terrorizing peoples all over Serkel. How could that be, Karenza wondered, when she had seen him die with her own eyes?

The masked man never spoke his motives, nor did he speak his name. He never spoke a word at all as he committed mass atrocities, killing and torturing, thieving, enslaving, and building a dominion around himself.

The people called him many names, but “Mankind’s Disgrace” became the best known, for he displays every disgraceful facet of mankind. He is also known as the Divine of Hate.

Disgrace attacked Karenza’s temple yet again, this time with an even larger army. Karenza took Isaac and managed to flee safely, but Disgrace retrieved the Divine Executioner and took over her temple, claiming it for his own.

Karenza, Isaac, and her surviving followers went into hiding for some time. In their absence, Disgrace’s chaos reigned over the desert, inciting terrible wars and bleeding misery over the land.

Karenza realized this battle could not be won with more violence, for Disgrace raised the corpse of every soldier he killed, adding them to his own forces as mindless bonewalkers. So she used her powers of love, patience, and artistry to turn her maenad followers into minervae.

The maenads were nymphs born from music, known as passionate lovers and vicious fighters. As minervae, their intelligence grew so grand that they could see glimpses into the future. With their magical tomes they passively recorded all that they learned, and with their magical instruments they could soothe hatred in peoples’ hearts.

The exact numbers are not known, but it’s said that Disgrace’s bonewalkers outnumbered Karenza’s minervae many times over. Still, the minervae crept into his dominion and managed to destroy his forces with their magical hymns.

His own slaves rose up and destroyed him, and the land was free of his short-lived tyranny. The last of his soldiers fled with the Divine Executioner, carrying it off to parts unknown.

The people rejoiced, hailing Karenza as their new queen. But she wanted no such fame, for she knew Disgrace would be back, and then she and Isaac would be in danger.

After reclaiming her temple, the minervae used their great telekinetic powers to separate it from the land. It became known as the Ethereal Temple, and today it is still floating high in the sky. The minervae always keep it moving and even teleport it on occasion so that Disgrace will struggle to track it.

Even these drastic measures could not keep the persistent Divine of Hate away. Sure enough, when Isaac was 9 years old, Disgrace returned to attack Karenza in her floating temple. He seemed to despise love and all who took part in it, and he would stop at nothing to destroy the Divine of Love.

Karenza’s followers fought him off once again, suffering great casualties in the battle. She and Isaac were unscathed—at least physically. But Karenza realized that as long as she and Isaac were together, neither of them were safe.

She knew Disgrace would return and try to murder her again and again, and what happened if he succeeded, she couldn’t say. Only one thing was clear: Isaac was no longer safe with her. The once happy boy had become anxious and fearful, jumping at every breeze and crying at every shadow.

Isaac’s misery filled Karenza’s heart with grief.

One day, after much emotional deliberation, she asked her followers to build a treacherous, nonsensical dungeon. It would be known as “The Trial of Titans”, consisting of 5 logic-defying chambers, each guarded by a powerful titan nymph. The dungeon was designed to teleport itself to a random place in the world every so often, its entrance invisible to those with evil in their hearts.

On Isaac’s 10th birthday, Karenza gifted him the locket Darshaan had given her. Her minervae then played for him a magical song which wiped his memory before lulling him into a deep sleep. They sealed the sleeping boy into a sarcophagus at the end of the Trial of Titans, and he would not wake until it was opened again.

Karenza decided that if someone was pure enough to see the dungeon, brave enough to enter it, and strong and clever enough to survive it, then only they were fit to give Isaac the life he deserved and protect him from Disgrace. Though she cannot be with him in person, she watches over him through the eyes of her many agents.

Ever since Isaac was sealed away, Karenza has hidden from the public. She wishes not to make herself known to Disgrace, though some suspect that she has grown jaded and turned her back on the world.

However, the Order of Love and Light still thrives through the efforts of her many followers, who persevere despite all the hatred in the world.

Today, the Order continues to spread Azizala’s original teachings of love and mercy. They offer charity to the needy, just as Karenza was known for, and live by a strict doctrine of peace. Whatever Disgrace wounds in his wake, the Order trails him to heal.

Even today, many maenads still make the long, arduous pilgrimage to find Karenza’s moving temple and receive her blessing, becoming minervae to serve her. And in the face of war and misery, peoples of all kinds still seek Houses of Karenza to learn her teachings.

Even as Disgrace fights to eradicate all the love in the world, love still persists through those courageous enough to embrace it.

*


End file.
